Thursday, April 23, 2009

Economic Treason

Lots of chatter this morning about Bank of America chief Ken Lewis and his statements that he was pressured by Fed Chair Bernanke and then Treasury Secretary Paulson to keep slient regarding trouble at Merrill Lynch which if made public would make the crisis spread.

I truly wish I was making this up or this was a gag being played by some college newspaper editors but tragically it is not. I am telling you here and now this is an act of economic treason against the nation.

I realize the majority of the sheep on capitol hill have no clue what this means and its ramifications but I can assure you this is an unmitigated disaster. Those sheep we send to Washington too busy lining their own pockets, gathering political donations from lobbyists and special interests. Too busy grovelling before Mssrs. Bernanke his ilk during committee appearances with lines like "we thank you for you appearance before this committee" or "you've been doing yeoman's work on this difficult situation".

Instead of a more appropriate line such as, "you bet your sorry ass is up here before this committee for good reason and you better get me the information I requested. The people elected me to come here to tell you what to do not the other way around. You seem confused with the concept of dog and tail and which wags which. You will provide all documents requested or your life will become a miserable hell, I guarantee it".

You think that might get his attention?

Lets just see how much back bone resides up in Washington over this issue of Bank America and Merrill Lynch.

Ahhhh what does it all matter anyway. The fact remains that most people are more familiar with Simon Cowell than Henry Paulson. Again I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this state of affairs but either way a very hefty price will be paid for this ignorance/apathy.

The UPS earnings results were a disaster, this after the bar had been lowered almost to the ground and yet almost on cue these shameful, unconscionable shills on pompom TV have no reservations in spinning it positive for the sheep, errr, I mean public. It is absolutely revolting, yet the zombies out there continue to listen.

Apple beat the lowered bar and it is heralded as the bell as all is well. Time will tell boys and girls but the fact remains the street likes what it sees. We shall see for how long though.

Jobless claim are up once again but why let facts get in the way of a good spin job with the official unemployment rate now at 8.5%. Now if you really believe the unemployment rate is 8.5% then you most likely believed sub prime was contained, the economy was resilient, read my lips...no new taxes, I never inhaled.... blah blah blah.

I received an email from a reader asking about getting continually stopped out of this market. We must take small losses all the while being patient. We are in a distribution pattern now with the pros distributing stock to the public. When we roll over very few shorts will be on board for the ride having been burned too often to come back for more. Simply this is the game they play.

Housekeeping notes;

What can I say about the da boyz except I harbor no hard feelings as they can whip me as much as they like I refuse to whine.

Yesterday I was stopped out of the following positions;

SKF at $58.40 for a loss of about 4 1/2 pts on 1 unit.AZO at $167.15 for a loss of just over 3 pts on 1 unit.AMZN at $80.35 for a loss of almost 2 1/2 pts on 1 unit.GS at $121.95 for a loss of almost 4 pts on 1 unit.

Good speculating to you all and never forget that "an investor is a speculator who made a mistake and will not admit it".

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